diff --git a/app/controllers/api/v1/subject_sets_controller.rb b/app/controllers/api/v1/subject_sets_controller.rb
index 5684483c2..23cb2fb10 100644
--- a/app/controllers/api/v1/subject_sets_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/api/v1/subject_sets_controller.rb
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ def add_relation(resource, relation, value)
     if relation == :subjects && value.is_a?(Array)
       #ids is returning duplicates even though the AR Relations were uniq
       subject_ids_to_link = new_items(resource, relation, value).distinct.ids
-      unless Subject.where(id: subject_ids_to_link).count == value.count
+      unless Subject.where(id: subject_ids_to_link, activated_state: 'active').count == value.count
         raise BadLinkParams.new("Error: check the subject set and all the subjects exist.")
       end
       new_sms_values = subject_ids_to_link.map do |subject_id|
diff --git a/spec/controllers/api/v1/subject_sets_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/api/v1/subject_sets_controller_spec.rb
index 360db0c9c..e9f40cc8e 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/api/v1/subject_sets_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/api/v1/subject_sets_controller_spec.rb
@@ -227,6 +227,15 @@
           expect(response).to have_http_status(:ok)
         end
       end
+
+      context 'when a linking resource has been soft deleted' do
+        it 'returns a 422 with a missing subject' do
+          last_subject = subjects.last
+          last_subject.update(activated_state: 'inactive')
+          run_update_links
+          expect(response).to have_http_status(:unprocessable_entity)
+        end
+      end
     end
 
     context 'with illegal link properties' do