Cite as: 521 U. S. 591 (1997)
Opinion of Breyer, J.
bestos exposure.21 Congress, however, has not adopted such a solution. And Rule 23, which must be interpreted with fidelity to the Rules Enabling Act and applied with the interests of absent class members in close view, cannot carry the large load CCR, class counsel, and the District Court heaped upon it. As this case exemplifies, the rulemakers' prescriptions for class actions may be endangered by "those who embrace [Rule 23] too enthusiastically just as [they are by] those who approach [the Rule] with distaste." C. Wright, Law of Federal Courts 508 (5th ed. 1994); cf. 83 F. 3d, at 634 (suggesting resort to less bold aggregation techniques, including more narrowly defined class certifications).
* * *
For the reasons stated, the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit is
Affirmed.
Justice O’Connor took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
Justice Breyer, with whom Justice Stevens joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Although I agree with the Court's basic holding that "[s]ettlement is relevant to a class certification," ante, at 619, I find several problems in its approach that lead me to a different conclusion. First, I believe that the need for settlement in this mass tort case, with hundreds of thousands of lawsuits, is greater than the Court's opinion suggests. Second, I would give more weight than would the majority to settlement-related issues for purposes of determining whether common issues predominate. Third, I am uncertain about the Court's determination of adequacy of representa-21 The opinion dissenting in part is a forceful statement of that argument.
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