No. Courts, especially Federal Courts of Appeals are reluctant to grant mandamus, with some good reasons. The Courts use appeals to correct and discipline District Judges, but an appeal can only be filed when the District Judge issues a judgment, which Judge Sullivan has refused to do.
The Court could have issued a Writ of Prohibitiion without granting mandamus. Such writs limits the options available to the District Judge. This would have probably been the best option given that the case was essentially dead and the only true option to Judge Sullivan was to dismiss. The Court could have done this, but chose not to do it. Why, because they liked what Judge Sullivan is doing it because it suits their political agenda.
So a court can issue a writ of prohibition without being asked?
Why didn’t Powell ask for a writ of prohibition?
And you are saying that the court was politically corrupt because they did not issue a writ of prohibition despite not being asked?