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Didn't read any maritime law cases until this semester and have never heard it referenced as a source of American law.
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That is because by and large it isn't. The "gold fringe on the flag" thing is a popular argument among certain tiny segments of the population who have very unique and unsupported beliefs regarding how our legal system works.
It is basically a case of the gullible being led by the legally savvy. Kind of like if I took a lighter to start a fire when you were using flint and stone and when you asked me how I did it, I explained that tiny fire spirits were trapped by my powerful magic and if you did what I told you, you could trap the tiny spirits too. You end up doing a lot of what I tell you to do; but strangely enough it never works as well for you as it does for me.
An excellent example is a recent tax-protestor case. The "sovereign citizen" in question was a real attorney and so knew the actual law. He was charged with several tax crimes. He managed to get the prosecutor to drop all of them but "Failure to file" and then successfully convinced the jury that he did not know he had to file taxes in that particular circumstance. From a legal maneuvering standpoint, very innovative... though of course, he still has to pay the taxes and will likely be disbarred. However, when he gets interviewed after the case, he claims that as a sovereign citizen he doesn't have to pay taxes and the jury couldn't find anything saying he had to pay taxes and basically completely misstates how he won his case. The people who follow this guy only know that he got off - they don't know or understand the legal maneuvering that got him off - and here he is telling them that what he is teaching them will help them avoid taxes too. It won't though - they will go to jail because they don't know crap about the real legal system. They will stand there flicking their thumb and wondering why the fire spirits don't appear and then they'll just go to jail (after this guy fleeces them like sheep).