In 1990, Dellums and 44 of his congressional colleagues sued then-president President George H. W. Bush in D.C. Federal District Court in 1990, in the case "Dellums v. Bush", 752 F. Supp. 1141 (1990) attempting to halt a preemptive military buildup in the Middle East in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The plaintiff members of Congress asserted that military action without a declaration of war would be unlawful under U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 11 of the United States Constitution. "Dellums v. Bush" is notable in that it is one of only a few cases in which the Federal Courts have considered whether the War Powers Clause of the U.S. Constitution is justiciable in the courts. The Court in "Dellums v. Bush" indicated that, in that instance, it was, but because Congress had not yet acted as a majority, the lawsuit was premature.