The US Supreme Court will take up affirmative action this term. That’s good: The court has danced around race-based preferences multiple times over several decades. Could this be the moment that it ends the practice once and for all?

In Fisher v. Texas, Abigail Fisher, a white student, sued the University of Texas in 2008 after being denied entry based essentially on her race.

The UT policy is based on a 2003 Supreme Court decision, Grutter v. Bollinger, upholding the University of Michigan law school’s affirmative-action policy.

Then-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote for the 5-4 majority that the Constitution “does not prohibit the law school’s narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.”

O’Connor included a labored declaration that affirmative action would be needed for another 25 years.

That’s an obnoxious notion.

The United States was founded on the principle that individuals are endowed with Creator-derived rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — and are seen and judged equal under the law.

While often falling short of that principle in practice, the nation has labored to perfect itself from Day One — undertaking both a Civil War and a civil-rights movement to realize that ideal.

Counting by race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation — and granting preferred treatment due to membership in a favored group — is antithetical to the values of that history.

Let’s hope the Supreme Court ends group preferences outright and forever. Now.