diff --git a/includes/bootstrap.inc b/includes/bootstrap.inc
index c055fa664f8b3c4f366788e4c15632e367c135a7..dc0d78a91b0f55478b1d8d59b2d72a1e6d2068d1 100644
--- a/includes/bootstrap.inc
+++ b/includes/bootstrap.inc
@@ -631,7 +631,7 @@ function drupal_is_denied($type, $mask) {
   // (allowed).
   // The use of ORDER BY / LIMIT is more efficient than "MAX(status) = 0"
   // in PostgreSQL <= 8.0.
-  return (bool) db_result(db_query_range("SELECT NOT(status) FROM {access} WHERE type = '%s' AND LOWER('%s') LIKE LOWER(mask) ORDER BY status DESC", $type, $mask, 0, 1));
+  return (bool) db_result(db_query_range("SELECT (status = 0) FROM {access} WHERE type = '%s' AND LOWER('%s') LIKE LOWER(mask) ORDER BY status DESC", $type, $mask, 0, 1));
 }
 
 /**