What is the separation of powers in US politics?

The separation of powers is where the political system is divided into three 'branches' and power is divided between these branches. These branches are: the legislature (the body that makes laws - in the US this is the Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. It is equivalent to Parliament in the UK), the executive (this is made up of the President and the cabinet, equivalent to the Prime Minister and their cabinet in the UK) and the judiciary (this is the courts system where laws are upheld. In the US, this is the Supreme Court). The separation of powers is guaranteed by the US Constitution and ensures that no one political body can have too much power. To ensure this, the separation of powers features a 'separation of personnel' (so that one person can not be in more than one 'branch' at the same time, for example, the President cannot sit in Congress). There is also a system of 'checks and balances' so that the power of one branch is checked by another. Therefore, one branch cannot act alone and must compromise with the other branches to reach a consensus. When answering this question, it is likely that you would need to include examples. This may be an example of the separation of personnel (such as a Senator who had to leave office when they joined the executive, such as Obama when he became President) or of checks and balances (such as the President having a veto over the laws passed by Congress, but Congress having the ability to overturn that veto).