Justice should be a one-size-fits-all coat everyone can wear.

This universal moral principle is enshrined in the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

But believe it or not, the Supreme Court apparently thinks otherwise.

In fact, the SC headed by Renato Corona affirmed last year the conviction and jail sentence of Rosalio Galeos, a plumber,  for making “false” and “incomplete” declarations in his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth.

So, how come this very same SC -- at least the eight justices who voted to issue a temporary restraining order Thursday against the opening of Corona’s dollar accounts with the Philippine Savings Bank -- failed to  realize this sordid judicial double standard?

Do they mean  it is  okay for the SC to send to jail a plumber while helping try to hide from the Senate and the public evidence that could  prove that the CJ, like Galeos, was not truthful with his SALN?

It’s good that the fiery Rep. Rodolfo Farinas was around, vowing to spearhead the impeachment of the eight –  SC associate justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Roberto A. Abad, Jose Portugal Perez, Lucas Bersamin, Martin Villarama Jr., Bienvenido L. Reyes, and Jose Castral Mendoza.

It’s plainly unacceptable to have SC members who ironically participate in the concealment of the truth from the people who demand full accountability from  public officials.

Read Al Pacino’s  lips: “Justice is the finding of the truth.”

And so the CJ  now finds himself being tried by the Senate for the same offense in Article 2 of the eight articles of impeachment filed against him by the House of Representatives.

Galeos’ offense for which the  SC sent him to jail is nowhere near the gravity of the false and incomplete declarations which, House prosecutors said, the CJ has consistently made allegedly in his own SALN.

The plumber’s  mortal sin of omission? He  failed to check the box that said “yes” to the question whether or not he has a relative in government up to the fourth degree of consanguinity.

As it turned out, the poor guy  had a first cousin in government, a mayor  who made him a permanent employee of the municipal engineer’s office from 1994 to 1998.

Quite curiously, like  Galeos, the CJ has also denied in his SALN having a close relative in government during the years his wife Cristina served as an official of the Camp John Hay Development Authority.

In answering the question which Galeos answered with “No” in 1994 and subsequently with N/As, Corona should have known better than a mere plumber when he also wrote N/As in his own SALNs.

Now, why would he be allowed to stay a minute longer as CJ if he also committed the very same offense that sent a plumber to jail?

As a supposedly learned man of the law who heads the Judiciary no less, a higher standard of morality and of dutifully following the law is expected of the CJ, especially since the post he occupies is the fourth highest in the land.

Not only that. What aggravates his problem  with his SALN is the fact that as CJ, he is tasked to review the veracity and truthfulness of the SALN filed by those in the Judiciary.

Then there’s the mind-boggling properties costing hundreds of millions of pesos which, prosecutors said,  Corona  allegedly failed to  disclose or grossly undervalued in his SALN.

In her testimony at the Senate trial, Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares revealed that at least nine properties of the Coronas  in Marikina alone had not been declared in the CJ’s SALN.

This week, the CJ found himself deeper in a hole when his five peso accounts with PSBank were scrutinized by the Senate and were found to be allegedly grossly disproportionate with his stated cash positions in his SALN.

No wonder that he has come running to the SC -- his own house -- to stop the opening of his dollar accounts with PSBank, including one said to have had an opening balance of  $700,000 or the equivalent of P38 million when it was opened in 2008.

If the guy has nothing to hide, which many people now seriously doubt, he should willingly give his consent to the opening of his dollar accounts.                                                        

“Mistakes are not lies,” Bush administration Defense Undersecetary for Policy Douglas J. Feith once said unabashedly.

But lying, especially under oath, is a decidedly one  big mistake.