What is meant by the term 'checks and balances'?

The term 'checks and balances' defines the ability of different branches of government to stop each other from acting; it is designed to prevent one branch from gaining an inordinate amount of power. An example of the use of such checks and balances in the US government would be the Supreme Court's 2017 suspension of Trump's so-called 'Muslim Travel Ban' on the grounds of it being unconstitutional. Checks and balances were put in place by the Founding Fathers to allow cooperation and compromise between the branches, with James Madison quoted as saying "ambition must counteract ambition", thus setting out the clear intention of checks and balances.