Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Member removed from National Transportation Safety Board files suit, (Jun 5, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

He could only be removed for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, none of which were mentioned in the email terminating him.

Former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Alvin Brown has filed suit against President Trump, the NTSB Chairman, and the NTSB alleging that his removal on May 5, 2025, at the direction of the President, was an illegal, ultra vires action. The email announcing his removal did not allege that he had engaged in inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, as required for removal. He is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.

According to his complaint, Brown’s nomination as a NTSB member was confirmed by the Senate in 2024 and his term is not set to expire until December 31, 2026. He was also appointed by then-President Biden as vice chair on December 20, 2024. Nevertheless, he alleges, he was removed from his position by the NTSB chairman, at the instruction of the president, on May 5, 2025, without cause, although Congress did not grant the president authority to remove NTSB members at will.

Independent agency. The NTSB became an independent agency in the 1970s, the complaint explains, based on Congress’s realization that it “needed to be independent of the Department of Transportation and all other agencies in order to conduct independent accident investigations and formulate safety improvement recommendations that at times may be critical of agencies and their officials.” Congress mandated that no more than three of the five members be of the same political party and staggered the members’ five-year terms because it intended for the Board’s work to be informed by a diversity of viewpoints.

With its status as a traditional independent agency, the complaint explains, the NTSB primarily exercises quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions, and it only exercises executive functions in discharge of those. Most of the NTSB’s functions are quasi-legislative, it explains. As part of its investigatory, reporting, and recommending functions, the complaint explains, NTSB “has no regulatory or enforcement authority and does not investigate criminal activity.”

The complaint alleges that the defendants’ actions are ultra vires, in violation of the Independent Safety Act of 1974, 49 U.S.C. § 1111.

The case is No. 1:25-cv-01764.

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