Jose Benedicto Luis Luna Reyes (August 19, 1902 – December 27, 1994) was a Filipino jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1954 to 1972.
By the age of 15, he had earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Unlike some of the other founders of the Free Philippines movement, such as Rafael Roces, Jr. and Antonio Bautista, Reyes was spared execution, though not torture.
[8] Upon his retirement in 1972, one of his colleagues, the future Chief Justice Felix Makasiar, said of Reyes that "[n]o jurist within living memory has commanded during the last quarter of a century, the deep respect and admiration of the bench and bar, of dilettantes and scholars, of professors and students.
"[9] As expected, Reyes penned many leading decisions in civil law that remain widely studied today, including Tenchavez v. Escaño, 122 Phil.
He notably dissented in Moy Ya Lim Yao v. Commissioner of Immigration, 41 SCRA 292 (1971), where the Court had relaxed the requisites for a foreigner to acquire Filipino citizenship through marriage.
Reyes opined that unlike perhaps in the United States, the Philippine constitution disfavored the absorption of immigrants and thus the citizenship laws should be interpreted with that view in mind.
The Court, through Reyes, insisted on a restrictive interpretation of the expiring Parity Amendments occasioned by the Bell Trade Act, towards the end of prohibiting the ownership by foreigners of residential lands.
At the end of his opinion, he criticized the earlier enactment of the Parity Amendments to the Constitution, saying: That Filipinos should be placed under the so-called Parity in a more disadvantageous position than United States citizens in the disposition, exploitation, development and utilization of the public lands, forests, mines, oils and other natural resources of their own country is certainly rank injustice and inequity that warrants a most strict interpretation of the "Parity Amendment", in order that the dishonorable inferiority in which Filipinos find themselves at present in the land of their ancestors should not be prolonged more than is absolutely necessary.
Unburdened by his judicial role, Reyes became an active member in the political opposition against the martial law rule of Ferdinand Marcos.
Together with the two main co-chairs Lorenzo M. Tañada and José W. Diokno, Reyes helped organize the Free Legal Assistance Group in October 1974 as a national officer,[1] and later the Anti-Bases Coalition in 1983, which sought the removal of the American military bases in Clark and U.S.
He was the lead petitioner in the landmark Supreme Court case of Reyes v. Bagatsing, 125 SCRA 553 (1983), where he successfully sought injunctive relief against the mayor of Manila, who had wanted to prohibit demonstrations in front of the United States embassy.
Following his retirement from the Court, Reyes was named as the head of the Civil Code Revision Committee of the UP Law Center.
In this capacity, Reyes advocated the equal treatment of wives and husbands under family law, and many substantial changes to the Civil Code were enacted to that effect.
Reyes's name is on the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Wall of Remembrance, which recognizes heroes who fought against martial law in the Philippines under Ferdinand E.