Drupal 6 removed the ability to display menu items the user doesn't have access to. However, in some cases it is desirable to show a menu item even though the user doesn't have access to the menu item. For example, if you use an authentication mechanism that tries to acquire authentication when a 403 would be displayed, you still want to display the menu item so that users get a chance to provide credentials to log in.
- Use an access control module to restrict access to a node. I used tac_lite to demo.
- Add a node and a menu link to it on the main menu. Tag it with the tag configured in tac_lite that denies anonymous users viewing the node.
- See the link to the node in the main menu.
- Log out. Now you can't see the menu link.
This issue is about letting the menu link be visible despite access to the node being restricted.