Left: Alvin Brown (NTSB). Right: President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
A top U.S. National Transportation Safety Board official who was ousted by President Donald Trump last month has fired back with a lawsuit, arguing that his removal was “illegal” and will have “significant and damaging consequences for the work of the board and its investigation and reporting of major transportation accidents and casualties,” according to court documents.
Former Vice Chair Alvin Brown was booted from his position on May 5 and stripped of his access to NTSB systems, email, and offices a day later without being given any specific reason for it, according to his federal complaint, which was filed Thursday in Washington, D.C.
Brown, a Democrat who was appointed as vice chair by Joe Biden in 2024, was axed via email from Trent Morse, deputy director of presidential personnel.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position on the National Transportation Safety Board is terminated effective immediately,” the email said, according to Brown’s complaint. “Thank you for your service.”
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Brown’s lawyers argue that Trump “lacked authority to remove” him prior to the expiration of his term, which was slated to end in December 2026. “In the email removing Mr. Brown, Defendant Trump did not allege that Mr. Brown had engaged in inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,” his complaint says, arguing that the president must do so under the Independent Safety Board Act of 1974, which states that the president may remove board members “only” for the reasons listed, per Brown’s complaint.
“Congress ensured the Board’s independence by limiting the President’s authority to remove Board members,” the complaint says, noting how “Congress did not grant the president authority to remove NTSB members at will,” as they claim he did here.
“By mandating that no more than three of the five members be of the same political party and by staggering the members’ five-year terms, Congress intended for the Board’s work to be informed by a diversity of viewpoints,” the complaint adds. “Because the Board members perform predominantly quasi-legislative functions and quasi-judicial functions and do not exercise substantial or considerable executive power, these restrictions on the president’s removal authority are constitutional.”
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Brown’s lawyers say Trump “lacked cause” to boot him from the NTSB. He is seeking injunctive relief to “enable [Brown] to perform his duties as a board member” in response to Trump’s “harmful and illegal actions and to ensure that the NTSB can resume its congressionally mandated work as Congress intended,” according to the complaint.
“Congress made the National Transportation Safety Board independent for a reason: to ensure that investigations into transportation disasters are driven by expertise and evidence,” said Victoria Nugent, Legal Director at Democracy Forward, which is representing Brown, in a statement Wednesday.
“The termination of Mr. Brown and the undermining of the independence of this Board does nothing to keep people safer,” Nugent said. “At a time when transportation safety is top of mind, we should be strengthening, not weakening, the systems meant to protect all Americans.”
The Trump administration did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment Thursday.
