Cite as: 538 U. S. 135 (2003)
Opinion of Kennedy, J.
U. S. 591, 598 (1997) (" '[E]xhaustion of assets threatens and distorts the process; and future claimants may lose altogether' " (quoting Report of the Judicial Conference Ad Hoc Committee on Asbestos Litigation 2-3 (Mar. 1991))); 521 U. S., at 632 (Breyer, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). In fact the Court already has framed the question that should guide its resolution of this case:
"In a world of limited resources, would a rule permitting immediate large-scale recoveries for widespread emotional distress caused by fear of future disease diminish the likelihood of recovery by those who later suffer from the disease?" Metro-North Commuter R. Co. v. Buckley, 521 U. S. 424, 435-436 (1997).
The Court ignores this question and its warning. It is only a matter of time before inability to pay for real illness comes to pass. The Court's imprudent ruling will have been a contributing cause to this injustice.
Asbestos litigation has driven 57 companies, which employed hundreds of thousands of people, into bankruptcy, including 26 companies that have become insolvent since January 1, 2000. See RAND Institute for Civil Justice, S. Carroll et al., Asbestos Litigation Costs and Compensation: An Interim Report 71 (2002), Petitioner's Supplemental Lodging, p. SL82. With each bankruptcy the remaining defendants come under greater financial strain, see Edley & Weiler, Asbestos: A Multi-Billion-Dollar Crisis, 30 Harv. J. Legis. 383, 392 (1993); M. Plevin & P. Kalish, What's Behind the Recent Wave of Asbestos Bankruptcies? 16 Mealey's Litigation Report: Asbestos 35 (Apr. 20, 2001), and the funds available for compensation become closer to exhaustion, see Schuck, The Worst Should Go First: Deferral Registries in Asbestos Litigation, 15 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 541, 547 (1992).
In this particular universe of asbestos litigation, with its fast diminishing resources, the Court's wooden determina-
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