The Committee to Aid the Bloomington Students (CABS) was formed in 1963 to promote national support and raise funds for the legal defense of three Indiana University students charged with felonies under Indiana's Anti-Subversion Act of 1951. The three students, Ralph Levitt, Jim Bingham, and Tom Morgan were officers in the Indiana University chapter of the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) on March 25, 1963, when a black civil rights activist and national YSA officer, Leroy McRae, spoke on “The Black Revolt in America” to the I.U. chapter of the YSA. The Monroe County (Ind.) public prosecutor, Thomas A. Hoadley, interpreted the speech as advocating the violent overthrow of the governments of the United States and the State of Indiana. On May 1, 1963, Levitt, Bingham, and Morgan were indicted by a local grand jury. In July 1963 two other indictments were brought against the students, charging subversive conspiracy in private meetings held in May 1963.
CABS grew out of the Bloomington Defense Committee, established in 1962 to resist Prosecutor Hoadley's attempt to convince Indiana University to withdraw official recognition from YSA. At the end of 1963 CABS moved its national headquarters to New York City from Bloomington in order to escape the disapproval of the community and the scrutiny of Hoadley. From the New York office, fund-raising, distribution of literature, and several national and regional tours of the three defendants were coordinated with local CABS chapters that generally consisted of YSA activists.
On March 20, 1964, a county circuit court judge found the Indiana Anti-Subversion Act unconstitutional and dismissed the indictments against the three students. Prosecutor Hoadley appealed the ruling to the Indiana Supreme Court, where the indictments based on the private meetings were reinstated on January 25, 1965. In November 1966 a hearing on the constitutionality of the Indiana Anti-Subversion Act was to be held in a federal court but was cancelled, evidently in response to the decision of Prosecutor Hoadley to resign his office. After some delay, the new public prosecutor decided not to pursue the case. CABS issued its final communication to its sponsors and contributors in February 1968.
