DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former prosecutor Stephanie Rose is now the nation’s youngest federal judge and the first female federal judge in Iowa’s Southern District. The 39-year-old former U.S. attorney for Iowa’s Northern District took the oath of office at a Tuesday ceremony in Des Moines. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder attended the swearing-in at the federal courthouse.

Rose, of Center Point, received attention during her Senate confirmation hearing in September for her role in prosecutions stemming from a 2008 raid by federal immigration officials on Agriprocessors, Inc., in Postville. Critics alleged that hundreds of workers at the kosher meatpacking plant, many in the country illegally, were rushed through the court process. Despite that, she was overwhelmingly confirmed

Rose became the Northern District’s U.S. attorney in 2009.