diff --git a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/internals/AbstractStickyAssignor.java b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/internals/AbstractStickyAssignor.java
index d4e023cc098a8..353a225c8fcd0 100644
--- a/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/internals/AbstractStickyAssignor.java
+++ b/clients/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/clients/consumer/internals/AbstractStickyAssignor.java
@@ -274,7 +274,6 @@ private Map<String, List<TopicPartition>> generalAssign(Map<String, Integer> par
         Map<TopicPartition, ConsumerGenerationPair> prevAssignment = new HashMap<>();
 
         prepopulateCurrentAssignments(subscriptions, currentAssignment, prevAssignment);
-        boolean isFreshAssignment = currentAssignment.isEmpty();
 
         // a mapping of all topic partitions to all consumers that can be assigned to them
         final Map<TopicPartition, List<String>> partition2AllPotentialConsumers = new HashMap<>();