Alvin Brown, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board who was nominated by President Biden, has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of removing him — and dozens of other Black officials across the government — because of their race.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia and reported by Bloomberg Law, argues that Brown's May 2025 termination from the NTSB is one data point in a documented pattern. According to attorneys from the Democracy Forward Foundation, roughly 75% of Black officials at independent federal agencies have been fired under Trump's second term, compared to approximately 27% of white officials in the same positions — nearly three times the rate.

The Trump administration has framed many of its agency firings as efforts to install Republican leadership and purge Biden-era appointees. Brown's lawsuit pushes back on that framing directly.

"Mr. Brown's removal from the NTSB cannot be explained by the fact that Mr. Brown is a Democrat and President Trump might have wanted to exert Republican control over the Board," the complaint states. "At the time of Mr. Brown's removal from the NTSB, there were two other Democrats serving on the Board." Brown was the only Black board member — and the only one fired.

Brown was Vice Chairman of the NTSB and had been scheduled to serve through the end of 2026. Trump nominated a white man to replace him. When Brown was dismissed in May 2025, legal experts told the Associated Press they could not recall anyone ever being fired from the NTSB before, per Fortune.

The lawsuit names a string of agencies where Trump has removed Black officials from leadership. They include the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Reserve, and the Library of Congress. In most cases, the complaint says, Black appointees were replaced with white nominees or left with no formal replacement at all.

"President Trump has removed Black Senate-confirmed appointees; he has either nominated a non-Black individual for their replacement or has not formally replaced them at all," the lawsuit states. "This trend fits with President Trump's consistent messaging criticizing diversity and inclusion and his clear and demonstrable emphasis on hiring white people."

Brown himself was direct about what the numbers show. "When you look at who has been removed without cause, and who has been left in place, the pattern is impossible to ignore: Black commissioners across the federal government have been summarily fired," he said.

Democracy Forward is also representing Robert Primus, a Black former member of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board who was also fired. Primus was the only STB member to oppose Canadian Pacific's acquisition of Kansas City Southern Railroad in 2023 and was pushed out shortly after Union Pacific proposed an $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern — a deal the board will soon consider. Trump has publicly said the Union Pacific deal sounds good.

Brown's lawsuit invokes the Fifth Amendment's equal protection guarantee, adding a racial discrimination angle to what has until now been primarily a debate about the president's constitutional authority to fire independent agency heads. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing that question in a separate case involving Rebecca Slaughter, a former Federal Trade Commission member whose dismissal Trump also ordered.

Trump also attempted to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, but courts have so far allowed her to remain in her position.