I have the following files. # application_controller_spec.rb require ''spec_helper'' describe ApplicationController do controller do def index raise CanCan::AccessDenied.new("Not authorized!", :read, Order) end end describe "rescue from AccessDenied" do it "should rescue from CanCan::AccessDenied" do get :index response.should redirect_to("/") end end end # application_controller.rb class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base protect_from_forgery rescue_from CanCan::AccessDenied do |exception| redirect_to root_url, :alert => exception.message end end But when I run the spec get the following error: Failure/Error: response.should redirect_to("/") Expected response to be a <:redirect>, but was <200> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/rspec-users/attachments/20110830/3c9d25b7/attachment-0001.html>