First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...

The verb tener means ‘to have’. Tener is an irregular verb. There are some common expressions in Spanish that use tener (to have) where in English the verb ‘to be’ would be used.

There is a misconception that all verbs in a paragraph should be in the same tense. The choice of the appropriate verb tense depends on context and meaning.