The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) has entered a period of uncertainty after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated a panel ruling that had upheld the law’s constitutionality. The full court will now reconsider whether Congress violated the Constitution’s quorum clause when it passed the PWFA as part of the December 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which relied heavily on proxy voting during the COVID‑19 pandemic. Texas brought the challenge, arguing that proxy voting failed to meet the Constitution’s requirement for a quorum.
A federal district court initially sided with Texas. Judge James Wesley Hendrix ruled that the House’s use of proxy voting to approve the omnibus spending bill was unconstitutional, and he barred the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) from enforcing the PWFA against Texas or its agencies. As a result, the EEOC could not accept or investigate PWFA‑related complaints from Texas state employees, issue right‑to‑sue letters, or bring enforcement actions on their behalf.
Although a divided Fifth Circuit panel later reversed that decision—holding that the Constitution does not require physical presence for a quorum—the full court’s decision to rehear the case places the law back in limbo. With an en banc review now underway, the enforceability of the PWFA in Texas remains unresolved. Employers and employees in the state must navigate this period of ambiguity while awaiting a definitive ruling on whether the law was validly enacted.
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