diff --git a/remote-curl.c b/remote-curl.c
index 0eb6fc48fbb8f9c599386381539bd2fa4d23e40e..38cab05ec52585c886e09f58acb2511c9209cbcb 100644
--- a/remote-curl.c
+++ b/remote-curl.c
@@ -514,7 +514,7 @@ static int fetch_git(struct discovery *heads,
 	argv[argc++] = url;
 	for (i = 0; i < nr_heads; i++) {
 		struct ref *ref = to_fetch[i];
-		if (!ref->name || !*ref->name)
+		if (!*ref->name)
 			die("cannot fetch by sha1 over smart http");
 		argv[argc++] = ref->name;
 	}