diff --git a/config/settings/base.py b/config/settings/base.py
index 4bbae4e087364fbdd07937e062f69c915caec27f..55f8cbf68d4ca80850ddf5a41eb51c4b77111be3 100644
--- a/config/settings/base.py
+++ b/config/settings/base.py
@@ -308,7 +308,7 @@ X509_ISSUER_DN_HEADER = 'HTTP_SSL_CLIENT_I_DN'
 # handled by the REST_FRAMEWORK dictionary.
 AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = [
     'ligoauth.backends.ShibbolethRemoteUserBackend',
-    'ligoauth.backends.GraceDbModelBackend',
+    'ligoauth.backends.ModelPermissionsForObjectBackend',
     'guardian.backends.ObjectPermissionBackend',
 ]
 
diff --git a/gracedb/ligoauth/backends.py b/gracedb/ligoauth/backends.py
index abf6ad4b02b35a6631c38584b00e9070d68f17f1..fa73816da1e92a612b95d9f3dc92458e234fe3b2 100644
--- a/gracedb/ligoauth/backends.py
+++ b/gracedb/ligoauth/backends.py
@@ -36,16 +36,6 @@ class ModelPermissionsForObjectBackend(backends.ModelBackend):
             perm, obj=None)
 
 
-class GraceDbModelBackend(ModelPermissionsForObjectBackend):
-    """
-    Main permission-checking backend for GraceDB.  We remove the ability
-    for this backend to authenticate users, since that is handled by other
-    auth backends.
-    """
-    def authenticate(self, request, username=None, password=None, **kwargs):
-        return None
-
-
 class ShibbolethRemoteUserBackend(backends.RemoteUserBackend):
     """
     Almost completely taken from Django's RemoteUserBackend, but we have to