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Opinion of Ginsburg, J.
Justice Ginsburg, with whom Justice Stevens joins, and with whom Justice Souter joins as to Part II-B, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I join the Court's judgment to the extent that it remands the case to the Ninth Circuit. I agree that a remand is in order because the Court of Appeals did not attend to this Court's reading of 28 U. S. C. § 1738 in a controlling decision, Kremer v. Chemical Constr. Corp., 456 U. S. 461 (1982). But I would not endeavor, as the Court does, to speak the first word on the content of Delaware preclusion law. Instead, I would follow our standard practice of remitting that issue for decision, in the first instance, by the lower federal courts. See, e. g., Marrese v. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 470 U. S. 373, 387 (1985).
I write separately to emphasize a point key to the application of § 1738: A state-court judgment generally is not entitled to full faith and credit unless it satisfies the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. See Kremer, 456 U. S., at 482-483. In the class-action setting, adequate representation is among the due process ingredients that must be supplied if the judgment is to bind absent class members. See Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts, 472 U. S. 797, 808, 812 (1985); Prezant v. De Angelis, 636 A. 2d 915, 923-924 (Del. 1994).
Suitors in this action (called the "Epstein plaintiffs" in this opinion), respondents here, argued before the Ninth Circuit, and again before this Court, that they cannot be bound by the Delaware settlement because they were not adequately represented by the Delaware class representatives. They contend that the Delaware representatives' willingness to release federal securities claims within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts for a meager return to the class members, but a solid fee to the Delaware class attorneys, disserved the interests of the class, particularly, the absentees. The inadequacy of representation was apparent, the Epstein plaintiffs maintained, for at the time of the settle-
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