diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index aa595e21..ab25bc0a 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ What's new in psycopg 2.5.3
   Adam Petrovich for the bug report and diagnosis.
 - Don't segfault using poorly defined cursor subclasses which forgot to call
   the superclass init (:ticket:`#195`).
+- It is now possible to call `get_transaction_status()` on closed connections.
 - Fixed debug build on Windows, thanks to James Emerton.
 
 
diff --git a/psycopg/connection_type.c b/psycopg/connection_type.c
index b3d4aa63..96919a72 100644
--- a/psycopg/connection_type.c
+++ b/psycopg/connection_type.c
@@ -700,8 +700,6 @@ psyco_conn_set_client_encoding(connectionObject *self, PyObject *args)
 static PyObject *
 psyco_conn_get_transaction_status(connectionObject *self)
 {
-    EXC_IF_CONN_CLOSED(self);
-
     return PyInt_FromLong((long)PQtransactionStatus(self->pgconn));
 }