Changes

In 1982, Phillips and the [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] political activist Clymer Wright urged Reagan to dismiss [[James A. Baker, III (DOS)]], a Houston [[attorney]] and close ally of then Vice President [[George Herbert Walker Bush]]. Reagan rejected the Wright-Phillips request, and in 1985, named Baker as [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]], at Baker's request in a job-swap with then Secretary [[Donald T. Regan]], a former Merrill Lynch officer who became chief of staff. Reagan also rebuked Phillips and Wright for waging a "campaign of sabotage" against Baker.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/05/us/briefing-186924.html|author=Phil Gailey and Warren Weaver, Jr.,|title=Briefing|publisher=''The New York Times''|date=June 5, 1982|accessdate=January 27, 2011}}</ref>​

In 1982, Phillips and the [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] political activist Clymer Wright urged Reagan to dismiss [[James A. Baker, III (DOS)]], a Houston [[attorney]] and close ally of then Vice President [[George Herbert Walker Bush]]. Reagan rejected the Wright-Phillips request, and in 1985, named Baker as [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]], at Baker's request in a job-swap with then Secretary [[Donald T. Regan]], a former Merrill Lynch officer who became chief of staff. Reagan also rebuked Phillips and Wright for waging a "campaign of sabotage" against Baker.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/05/us/briefing-186924.html|author=Phil Gailey and Warren Weaver, Jr.,|title=Briefing|publisher=''The New York Times''|date=June 5, 1982|accessdate=January 27, 2011}}</ref>​

The fight against James Baker was not Phillips' first clash with Reagan. The year before in 1981, he and his friend, the Reverend [[Jerry Falwell]] of Lynchburg, Virginia, opposed the fateful nomination of Moderate Republican [[Sandra Day O'Connor]] of [[Arizona]] to the [[United States Supreme Court]] in order to fulfill Reagan's campaign promise that he would appoint the first woman to the high court. According to Phillips, "People say you can't tell how a Supreme Court nominee will turn out once on the bench. I respectfully disagree. In most cases, it's very clear. I opposed the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor because it was very clear that she had a pro-[[abortion]] record in the Arizona State Senate and as a state court judge. She was also allied with [[Planned Parenthood]]."<ref name=dflynn>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103215640/http://www.flynnfiles.com/blog/phillips/phillips1.htm|title=Interview with Howard Phillips|author=Daniel J. Flynn|publisher=Flynnfiles.com|date=January 3, 2012|accessdate=April 22, 2013}}</ref>

Phillips strongly opposed the since modified [[North American Free Trade Agreement]] (NAFTA) and the [[World Trade Organization]. He supported a national version of [[California]]'s Proposition 187 (1994), which sought to end mandated subsidies for [[illegal aliens]]. He fought public funding of abortion and opposed the [[homosexual]] agenda. Phillips was the host of ''Conservative Roundtable,'' a weekly public affairs [[television]] program.​ More so than not, his positions did not come to political fruition.

In 1990, Phillips opposed the first President Bush's nomination of [[David Souter]] of [[New Hampshire]] to the high court.<ref name="lion"/> Phillips said that he opposed Souter because "I read his senior thesis at Harvard in which he said he was a egal positivist and one of his heroes was [[Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]], and that he rejected all higher law theories, such as those spelled out in our [[Declaration of Independence]]. In addition, he was a trustee of two hospitals: Dartmouth Hitchcock and Concord Memorial. He successfully changed the policy of those two hospitals from zero abortion to convenience abortion."<ref name=dflynn/>​

Phillips and fellow conservatives [[Richard Viguerie]], known as the innovator of direct mail in the 1964 political campaign,  [[Paul Weyrich]] of [[The Heritage Foundation]], and Terry Dolan (1950-1986), founder of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, urged the Reverend [[Jerry Falwell]], pastor of the large Liberty Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, to form in 1979 the since disbanded [[Moral Majority]]. He later founded  the [[Council for National Policy]] with another conservative minister, [[Tim LaHaye]], a group akin to the liberal [[Council on Foreign Relations]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502114628/https://www.au.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6949&abbr=cs_|title=Who Is The Council For National Policy And What Are They Up To? And Why Don't They Want You To Know?|publisher=Americans United|accessdate=December 31, 2018}}</ref>

Phillips strongly opposed the since modified [[North American Free Trade Agreement]] (NAFTA) and the [[World Trade Organization]. He supported a national version of [[California]]'s Proposition 187 in 1994, which sought to end mandated subsidies for [[illegal aliens]]. He fought public funding of abortion and opposed the [[homosexual]] agenda. Phillips was the host of ''Conservative Roundtable,'' a weekly public affairs [[television]] program.​ More so than not, his positions did not come to political fruition.

The fight against James Baker was not Phillips' first clash with Reagan. The year before in 1981, he and his friend, the Reverend Jerry Falwell opposed the fateful nomination of Moderate Republican [[Sandra Day O'Connor]] of [[Arizona]] to the [[United States Supreme Court]] in order to fulfill Reagan's campaign promise that he would appoint the first woman to the high court.  According to Phillips, "People say you can't tell how a Supreme Court nominee will turn out once on the bench. I respectfully disagree. In most cases, it's very clear. I opposed the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor because it was very clear that she had a pro-[[abortion]] record in the Arizona State Senate and as a state court judge. She was also allied with [[Planned Parenthood]]."<ref name=dflynn>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103215640/http://www.flynnfiles.com/blog/phillips/phillips1.htm|title=Interview with Howard Phillips|author=Daniel J. Flynn|publisher=Flynnfiles.com|date=January 3, 2012|accessdate=April 22, 2013}}</ref>

Phillips played an instrumental role in the founding of the Religious Right. He and fellow conservatives [[Richard Viguerie]], known as the innovator of direct mail in the 1964 political campaign,  [[Paul Weyrich]] of [[The Heritage Foundation]], and Terry Dolan (1950-1986), founder of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, urged the Reverend [[Jerry Falwell]], pastor of the large Liberty Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, to form in 1979 the since disbanded [[Moral Majority]]. He later founded  the [[Council for National Policy]] with another conservative minister, [[Tim LaHaye]], a group akin to the liberal [[Council on Foreign Relations]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502114628/https://www.au.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6949&abbr=cs_|title=Who Is The Council For National Policy And What Are They Up To? And Why Don't They Want You To Know?|publisher=Americans United |accessdate=December 31, 2018}}</ref>

In 1990, Phillips opposed the first President Bush's nomination of [[David Souter]] of [[New Hampshire]] to the high court. Phillips said that he opposed Souter because "I read his senior thesis at Harvard in which he said he was a egal positivist and one of his heroes was [[Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]], and that he rejected all higher law theories, such as those spelled out in our [[Declaration of Independence]]. In addition, he was a trustee of two hospitals: Dartmouth Hitchcock and Concord Memorial. He successfully changed the policy of those two hospitals from zero abortion to convenience abortion."<ref name=dflynn/>​

 

The Reagan-Bush selections of O'Connor and Souter preserved ''[[Roe V. Wade]]'' in a key 1991 Supreme Court decision.

==U.S. Taxpayers Party/Constitution Party==

==U.S. Taxpayers Party/Constitution Party==