DENVER — A Denver federal appellate court will hear arguments Monday on the religiousness of 12-foot-high crosses used to honor deceased Utah troopers along state highways.

A federal judge in Salt Lake City in 2007 ruled that the crosses are not an illegal public endorsement of religion and are used to communicate a secular message — that a patrolman died or was mortally wounded at a particular location.

Texas-based American Atheists in their appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, reject arguments that the cross “now falls into the category of the no-longer-religious Christmas tree.”

The group has suggested a tombstone or American flag to honor fallen troopers. The judge said the U.S. military uses crosses in cemeteries to represent death and also noted that Utah’s majority religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, does not use a cross as an icon.

American Atheists will have 20 minutes to present their argument before a three-judge panel, while the Utah Highway Patrol and Utah Highway Patrol Association, which privately funds the crosses, will have 15 minutes.

Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, as well as the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty will also have five minutes to tell the judges how the case may affect roadside memorials in their states.

Eric Russbach, litigation director for the Becket Fund, said his group asked to argue on behalf of the states because to them it’s an issue of privately-funded free speech and having a neutral government forum, not the religiousness of crosses.

“If you can avoid having the government say this is religious, this isn’t, isn’t that better?,’ Russbach said. “We think it’s better for the court to decide it on the free speech issue.”

Courts have found that crosses don’t always convey a religious message. The 10th Circuit last year found the three crosses used by Las Cruces, N.M., in a city seal was a pictograph of the city’s name, which in Spanish means “The Crosses.”

In court documents, American Atheists attorney Brian Barnard acknowledges that crosses are common in government-owned cemeteries, but argues the case is about public rights of way.

Utah’s memorial crosses contain the highway patrol’s logo and a small plaque with a photo and short biography of the fallen trooper, as well as the trooper’s name, rank, badge number and year of death.

“A passing motorist at 65-plus miles per hour sees only the shape of the memorial and the UHP logo,” Barnard wrote. “The information conveyed by such a speedy drive-by is ‘Christianity’ and ‘Utah Highway Patrol.'”

Calls to Barnard and to the Alliance Defense Fund, which represents the association, were not immediately returned Sunday.