written order

Government lawyers have said the planes were already en route by the time Judge Boasberg's written order was issued, and that his subsequent verbal order for the planes to return happened when they were no longer in US airspace.

Boasberg's written order, released later, did not include the demand that deportees in transit be returned.

"The narrower written order may well represent a more considered judgment by the court about the proper exercise of its powers," they wrote.

Judge Nichols, who was nominated by Trump during his first term, said the written order would be issued later.

The earliest known reference to "the Usher to the Order of the Garter" is in letters patent - a written order from a monarch granting an office, right or title to an individual - from 1361.