Performance of null checks in Java

Which one is faster? a == null or null == a?

This is the method of the former.

    public static boolean firstNullCheck(Object a) {
        if (a == null) {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

and the method of the latter.

    public static boolean secondNullCheck(Object a) {
        if (null == a) {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

Here’s the disassembly of the former.

public static boolean firstNullCheck(java.lang.Object);
  Code:
   0:	aload_0
   1:	ifnonnull	6
   4:	iconst_1
   5:	ireturn
   6:	iconst_0
   7:	ireturn

and the disassembly of the latter.

public static boolean secondNullCheck(java.lang.Object);
  Code:
   0:	aconst_null
   1:	aload_0
   2:	if_acmpne	7
   5:	iconst_1
   6:	ireturn
   7:	iconst_0
   8:	ireturn

The former saves you a bytecode. Anyone who can explain further since I am not sure whether if_acmpne is faster than ifnonnull?