Coye

Opinion by Chief Judge WALLACE; Dissent by Judge PREGERSON.

Kimberly Belshe, Director of the California Department of Health Services (Department), appeals from the district court’s order enjoining it from implementing section 54 of California’s Senate Bill 35, Welfare & Institutions Code § 14132(h) (1993) (Bill 35). Bill 35 restricts the eligibility of patients to be treated for certain dental procedures under Denti-Cal, California’s program for providing dental care to its low-income population. We have resolved the issue of attorneys’ fees in a separate unpublished disposition. Here we address only the question of whether the district court abused its discretion when it enjoined enforcement of Bill 35 on the ground that it violated a previous permanent injunction issued by the court. We have jurisdiction over this timely appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292 . We reverse and remand.

I

In 1965, Congress established the Medicaid program under Title XIX of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1396 , as a cooperative federal-state program to provide medical assistance to the needy. To be eligible for federal financial assistance, participating states must administer their programs…

dissenting:

The first basis of my dissent is jurisdictional. It has recently been called to our attention that this case is now moot because Bill 35, codified at California Welfare and Institutions Code § 14132(h)(2), provides that it “shall become inoperative July 1, 1995.” Accordingly, I do not believe that we need to issue a decision in this case because any relief that we grant will be illusory.

*606 In Native Village of Noatak v. Blatchford, 38 F.3d 1505, 1510 (9th Cir.1994), we held that “[a]s a general rule, if a challenged law is repealed or expires, the case becomes moot.... The exceptions to this general line of holdings are rare and typically involve situations where it is virtually certain that the repealed law will be reenacted.” See also Iron Arrow Honor Soc’y v. Heckler, 464 U.S. 67, 70 , 104 S.Ct. 373, 374 , 78 L.Ed.2d 58 (1983) (“To satisfy the Article III case-or-controversy requirement, a litigant must have suffered some actual injury that can be redressed by a favorable judicial decision.”); GTE California, Inc., v. F.C.C., 39 F.3d 940 , 945 (9th Cir.1994) (quoting Enrico’s, Inc. v. Rice, 730 F.2d 1250 , 1254 (9th Cir.1984)) (“Where events have occurred that…