Google told a federal district court in Virginia on Thursday that it would break "historical precedent" if the antitrust case brought by the Department of Justice were decided by a jury instead of a judge.

"Civil antitrust cases brought by the United States have historically been tried to the bench—not to a jury," Google stated in its filing. "Yet in this case, the Department of Justice is asking the Court for a jury trial, breaking with all historical precedent, even though the relief it seeks is overwhelmingly equitable and even though its allegations are, in DOJ's words, 'highly technical, often abstract, and outside the everyday knowledge of most prospective jurors.'"