<xsl:for-each select="ToDoList/ActionItem">
> 	<xsl:sort data-type="text" select="$SORT_BY" order="ascending"/>

A FAQ. Your sort key has the same value for every node.

You want select="*[name()=$SORT_BY]"

Mike Kay 


 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list