One thing was clear out of the Supreme Court's opening session Monday on the federal health care overhaul -- the justices are eager to issue a ruling, and unlikely to punt. 

The anticipation over how the court might rule on the merits of the law will have to wait another day, as the justices revealed very little about their views during opening arguments. What came out of the day's 90-minute session -- the first of three days covering four unique challenges -- is that the justices are poised to decide this year on the constitutional validity of the controversial law. 

The justices were presented with a challenge Monday that, if upheld, could push the case off until early 2015. The issue before the judges was whether an obscure 1867 tax law prohibits lawsuits, like the ones challenging the health care law, from going forward. 

The justices signaled that the technicality would probably not hold up the case, or prevent the justices from issuing a ruling on whether the law's controversial individual mandate is constitutional.