My dad was part of a Supreme Court case in the early 1990s. Not a lot of people know that. He joined an amicus brief in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, which was about whether small businesses could be forced to collect sales tax in states where they didn't have a physical presence. He wasn't a lawyer. He was a small business owner trying to show the court what these rules actually look like when you're the one living with them. A small operation trying to do the right thing and getting buried by rules that weren't built with us in mind.
My parents marched for the Equal Rights Amendment in Chicago. That’s just who they are. They show up for things they believe matter.
I didn't set out to follow in their footsteps. I really didn't. But we started finding sellers on Amazon using fake factory photos and counterfeit certification badges to pass off foreign-made flags as American-made. We reported them. Nothing happened. We reported them again. Still nothing. In the summer of 2024, I went to Washington with a small group of dealers to meet with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and voice the concerns that had been building across our industry for years. That trip changed things for me. A small group of manufacturers decided to pool their resources and push harder.
That turned into years of work. And in January, I wrote about how we finally got . Amazon now requires every seller making a "Made in the U.S.A." claim to submit a signed affidavit proving it, or their listing gets taken down. That was a real win. But here's what I've been thinking about since then.
When we started, this was about catching bad actors on one platform. Now it’s starting to look a lot more like what my parents did. We're not just reacting to fraud anymore. We're trying to change the rules.
Our industry associations, and , are working with the to map out what comes after the passes.
We want stronger labeling requirements so people know where their products actually come from. We want online sellers to have to show country of origin right in the listing, the same way you can check a label when you pick something up in a store. And we're exploring whether we can strengthen tariffs on imported U.S. flags specifically.
None of that is going to happen overnight. But we'll be bringing all of it to Washington in April, and we want a plan ready for 2027 so we're not starting from scratch.
The thing that excites me most, though, is what's happening at the state level. We're building a playbook so dealers across the country can champion flag legislation in their own states. North Carolina and Nevada already have bills moving. A dealer in Montana raised his hand and said he has experience working with state agencies to get legislation passed. People are volunteering.
This fall, I presented at our industry meeting and had a bunch of dealers come up afterward asking how they could help. That's new. And it changes everything, because this can't just be one person or one company. It has to be bigger than that to last.
I'll be honest. There are days when the advocacy work feels like a lot on top of running a business. But then someone volunteers, or a bill moves forward, or we get a meeting we didn't think we'd get, and it feels worth it again.
Lately I've even started thinking about whether I should be using this little stage we've built to speak up about things beyond flags. There are so many issues that affect small businesses, rules and systems that just weren't designed with companies like ours in mind. That’s exactly what my dad was trying to show the court thirty years ago. Some of these fights don't change.
This year, we celebrate 250 years as a country. Advocacy has been part of who we are since the beginning. For a small industry like ours, the wins come slow. But they come. You just have to keep showing up.
My dad would tell me the same thing.
If you're a dealer who wants to get involved at the state level, . If you're a customer, pay attention to where your flags come from and support the companies that are honest about it. That's how this keeps going.